In this episode, Michelle Janikian and Kyle Buller interview Ph.D. candidate and return guest, Benjamin Mudge, who you may remember from Solidarity Fridays episode 59, where he talked about the controversial topic of bipolar people taking psychedelics (something he knows a lot about, as someone who has been managing his own bipolar disorder with ayahuasca for 12 years). In this “Part 2” episode, he discusses what his options are as a Ph.D. candidate who is certain he’s figured out a way to help save countless lives but doesn’t have a ton of expendable money, a massive team behind him, or a clearly defined path: What are the requirements necessary for creating a protocol for bipolar people? How can you prove efficacy and appease ethics departments the fastest? How do you actually begin a research study? And he talks about bipolar and THC, the work of Dr. Leanna Standish and Dr. Victoria Hale, how clinical methods too often strip away spirituality in favor of reductionism and results, the idea of “pharmahuasca” and maintenance medications, the importance of sacred reciprocity, and why the best path toward affordable access may be a combination of the efforts of nonprofits and for-profits.
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